Season 1 Plot
An ambitious and sometimes controversial four-part documentary series sees ten boys and ten girls aged between eight and eleven being given the chance to experience life without mum and dad for two weeks. Living in two 'villages' and separated on gender lines, they decide everything about how they live - what they do, what they eat, when they get up, whether they clean and wash and how they organise and entertain themselves. Who will cope best without mum and dad? And who will build the better world - boys or girls?
Boys and Girls Alone Season 1 aired on February 2nd, 2009.
Season 1 Episodes
1. Episode 1
In the first programme, the children arrive in their exciting new surroundings and get to know each other. With comfy beds, and stocks of food, necessities and toys, there's everything they could need to have a fantastic adventure. Conforming to stereotype, while the girls bake cakes, the boys have a gigantic water fight and eat sweets, crisps and chips with cheese. But some of the boys soon start to miss their mums, and they reconsider the benefits of having rules and parents to wash and cook for them. Meanwhile, the girls squabble over sleeping and cooking arrangements and, as they split into factions, some of them feel picked on. Looking on, the parents have to make the difficult decision whether to sit by or step in to put their kids back on track.
2. Episode 2
After only three days of adventure, the boys - most of who can't cook - are wet, hungry and missing their mums. Meanwhile, the girls have gone from baking cakes to splitting into warring gangs. Looking on, their parents decided to step in to put their kids back on track. The children are given money to feed and entertain themselves for three days. While the boys invest in essentials like wrestling belts and Dr Who action figures, surviving on meagre rations, the girls blow their money, filling three trolleys with huge quantities of food. Meanwhile, Ade and Charley, who elected themselves leaders of the two villages, soon learn that power comes with its downsides as revolution brews amongst their subjects. And the parents find it hard to watch as their children continue to struggle to get along.
3. Episode 3
Last week the children struggled with money, and their self-appointed leaders faced revolution. Now they have a new challenge: a two-day camping trip in the great outdoors. Even getting to their camping sites proves a struggle: while the girls over-pack, the boys decide they need a new leader to guide them. Unfortunately he doesn't have a particularly strong sense of direction. And while the girls work together to put up their tents in no time, cooking in the boys' camp proves a disappointment, and some of the boys decide it's time to stick up for their rights. The children face where their food comes from as they prepare something from the wild for dinner: the girls must skin rabbits and pluck a chicken, while the boys fish for their supper. The experience seems to bring the boys' and girls' groups together, but when they return to their villages they face an even bigger test: meeting the opposite sex.
4. Episode 4
The boys and girls face their biggest test: living with the opposite sex. It's not a prospect that thrills everyone - and as the girls make a grab for space they test their limits of the boys' hospitality... For Lorna, who felt like an outsider in the girls' village at times, the move is the best thing to have happened. And a budding romance between Maddie and William has village tongues wagging, so Maddie decides on a solution to throw everyone off the scent. There's one final treat for the children: a dance with a rock 'n' roll band. They'll need to get dressed up to the nines and learn to dance together. But the idea appeals to some more than others... And as the fortnight-long adventure draws to an end, it's time for the children, and their parents, to reflect upon what they've learnt about themselves.